This year has been something of a paradox for the VLE market in UK higher education. While there has been plenty to report on within the big four companies that dominate this market, there have been barely any major changes by universities regarding which virtual learning environment (VLE) they use.

Since 2021, I have been providing an annual review of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) market in UK higher education, aiming to highlight trends, notable developments, and evolving market shares.

During a period in which discussion of how AI is set to alter education and challenge long-standing orthodoxies, it feels somewhat antiquated to be talking about virtual learning environments (VLEs). However, these unfashionable digital technologies continue to be the mainstay of practically every UK university's digital campus. 

For many years there have been the so-called big four" in this market - they being Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas and Brightspace. However, whilst in the US the proportion of universities using those products is more evenly spread, in the UK it’s really been a case of the big two - Moodle and Blackboard. These two VLEs are still the most widely used in UK universities and are used by over 70% of the 176 HEIs I looked at. Whilst that tells a story of two dominant players - I’m not sure that’s the true picture, because they used to be much more dominant.